Honzenji Temple

What Is Honzenji Temple?

Honzenji Temple (本善寺, Honzen-ji) is a temple of the Jōdo Shinshū Honganji school in Iigai, Yoshino Town, Nara Prefecture, founded by the priest Rennyo in 1476; 11 of its Edo-period buildings, led by the main hall, became Registered Tangible Cultural Properties on January 15, 2010. Its mountain name is Mutsuozan, and locals have long called it Iigai Gobō, the "Iigai branch temple."

The grounds sit at the foot of the hills that crowd the south bank of the Yoshino River, with the old town of Kamiichi across the water. Honzenji Temple lies on the way toward Mount Yoshino and has served for centuries as the center of Shin Buddhist practice in this part of the valley.

Rennyo's Foundation and the Iigai Gobō

Rennyo (1415 to 1499) was the eighth head of the Honganji and the leader who turned Shin Buddhism into a mass movement. According to Honzenji Temple's own history, he built the temple with his followers' labor and his own, taking the first character of "Honganji" for its name. In 1495 he appointed his newborn twelfth son, Jikkō, as the next resident priest. When Jikkō arrived in 1501 aged 7, he carried relics of Shinran, the founder of the school, and of Rennyo himself. The temple says that a share of the remains of every Honganji head since Rennyo has been deposited here without a gap.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs' Japan Heritage portal gives a practical reason for the site. The Shin Buddhist community needed Yoshino timber for great temples such as the Ishiyama Honganji in Osaka, and Iigai was a shipping point for logs from the mountain forests. The raft route the community opened down the river became the model for the Edo-period timber trade, and Honzenji Temple is one of the component properties of the Yoshino story recognized as Japan Heritage in 2016.

In 1578, during Oda Nobunaga's long war against the Honganji, troops under Tsutsui Junkei attacked Yoshino and burned the temple. The present layout dates from the middle of the Edo period onward. In that era, the temple explains, it ranked as one of the special branch temples that supported the Honganji.

Eleven Registered Buildings and Their Dates

All 11 buildings of Honzenji Temple were registered together on January 15, 2010, under the consecutive numbers 29-0149 to 29-0159. In effect, almost the entire temple complex entered the register at once.

Two criteria were applied. 6 buildings (the main hall, Rennyo Hall, sutra repository, bell tower, chajo hall and main gate) were registered as models of architectural form. The other 5 (the Rennyo Hall worship hall, entrance, guest hall, Onari Goten hall and priests' quarters) were registered for their contribution to the historic landscape.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs database dates the buildings as follows.

• Main hall, guest hall, priests' quarters, bell tower and main gate: mid-Edo period (1661 to 1750); the main hall was repaired in 1809 and 1900
• Rennyo Hall: 1747
• Rennyo Hall worship hall: 1748
• Onari Goten hall: 1772
• Sutra repository: 1792
• Chajo hall: 1798
• Entrance: 1860

The temple's own guide gives different dates for several of these: 1772 for the entrance and guest hall, 1790 for the chajo hall and 1754 for the worship hall. This site follows the national database and notes the temple's dating on each building's page.

Layout and a Walking Route

Honzenji Temple's precinct is long and narrow from east to west, shaped by the slope behind it. Only the north side is closed by a roofed earthen wall (Tsuijibei); on the other three sides the hillside itself forms the boundary.

The entrance is the main gate, set toward the east end of the north side at the top of a flight of stone steps. The bell tower stands just east of the gate and the chajo hall, with a drum tower perched on its roof, just west of it. Together these three frame the approach. The main hall rises at the center.

East of the main hall, Rennyo Hall stands against the foot of the hill, linked by a covered passage to the worship hall in front of it. The sutra repository occupies the northeast corner on a stone platform. West of the main hall, a chain of buildings runs from the entrance in the north through the guest hall to the Onari Goten hall in the south, with the priests' quarters attached at the guest hall's northwest corner.

A good circuit enters by the main gate, looks at the bell tower and chajo hall, crosses to the main hall, continues east to Rennyo Hall and the sutra repository, then returns west past the entrance, guest hall, Onari Goten hall and priests' quarters. The temple's guide also lists a mausoleum of Rennyo within the grounds.

Visiting Honzenji Temple

Visitors can walk the grounds of Honzenji Temple outside of ceremonies. Neither the temple's website nor the Yoshino Town listing gives an admission fee or set opening hours, and there is no notice of the interiors being open on a regular basis. If you hope to see inside a hall or to take photographs indoors, contact the temple in advance (phone 0746-32-2675).

Spring is the season to come. The grounds hold the Omoi-no-Sakura, an Edo higan cherry said to have been planted by Jikkō in memory of his father, and a weeping cherry said to be about 300 years old. The temple says they bloom together at the end of March, and it has held evening Dharma talks under the blossoms at that time.

The nearest stations are Yamato-Kamiichi and Yoshino-Jingu on the Kintetsu Yoshino Line. According to the temple and the Japan Heritage Yoshino site, Honzenji Temple lies about 1 kilometer east of either station, roughly 20 minutes on foot or 3 minutes by taxi.